European airports braced for tough start to 2022

European airports expect another slow start to this year after passenger numbers across the region ended 2021 still 59% below pre-pandemic levels. ACI Europe, which represents European airports, today reported passenger levels of around 1b in 2021. While that marked an improvement on the 728m European airports handled in 2020, it is still less than half the 2.4b passengers European airports saw in 2019. ACI Europe director general Olivier Jankovec says: ”After losing 1.72b passengers in 2020, we all had high hopes for a strong recovery in 2021. But last year proved another difficult one, as Europe’s airports ended up losing another 1.4b passengers compared to 2019. ”This means they remain under considerable stress, with systemic financial weakness across our industry.” There was, however, at least an upward trend across most of the year as international borders began opening up in June. Passengers at European airports were only 43% down on pre-crisis levels during the second half of the year and only 35% down in November. However, renewed travel restrictions which were implemented in response to the emergence of the Omicron variant resulted in a slowing of that recovery. December passengers at European airports were 39% below pre-crisis levels and ACI Europe expects Omicron concerns to weigh heavy during the early part of 2022.<br/>